Assisting western NC’s
Hurricane Helene recovery

Field hospital coordination

Dr. Alyssa Tilly, assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine‘s general medicine and clinical epidemiology division, helped coordinate a field hospital to provide medical care to some of the most impacted and vulnerable residents. The Spruce Pine native traveled to Yancey County, which lacks its own hospital, to transform Burnsville Fire Department into a fully operational field hospital.

Breastfeeding and infant support

Team members from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health provided support to the North Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition Support and Advocacy for Infant Feeding Emergencies Team in western North Carolina. Several faculty members, staff and students volunteered in affected areas and assisted with training needs. Heather Wasser, assistant professor at Gillings, worked with western North Carolina residents to promote safe infant feeding after Helene hit.

Immediate care response

Virtual care appointments through UNC Health were free for the months of September and October and concluded Oct. 26, 2024. Adult residents were able to see a UNC Health primary care provider for mild symptoms without an appointment — and with no out-of-pocket cost — through UNC Health Virtual Care Now.

Kristen Grady, a surgical services director and nurse at UNC Health Lenoir, was one of seven health care providers who volunteered to help patients at sister hospitals impacted by the storm. Grady took three 12-hour shifts at the UNC Health Blue Ridge Hospital in Morganton and also took care of patients in Black Mountain.

Matthew Mauzy, emergency response technology manager for Information and Technology Services, traveled to the mountains as a first responder for the LUH-72 section of the North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team.

Matthew Mauzy plays a critical role in North Carolina’s large rescue operation, helping nearly 600 people after Hurricane Helene while continuing his work ensuring campus safety. (Graphic by Gillie Sibrian/UNC-Chapel Hill)

UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy‘s Chapel Hill and Asheville campuses hosted donation drives, distributed medication and worked with relief agencies and clinics to assist those affected. The school also set up a student emergency fund to help Asheville-based students. Many Eshelman faculty members volunteered at the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry Medical Clinic, a joint effort among pharmacies and Buncombe County Health and Human Services.

Eshelman alumnus Taylor Jones, PharmD ’13, and his wife Jonna Munroe, PharmD, activated HealthRidge Pharmacy, their independent community pharmacy in Black Mountain, to serve as an emergency hub. They supplied doctors, nurses and volunteers with essential medications, worked with local shelters and clinics and made urgent deliveries.

Damage assessments, insurance claim assistance and FEMA appeals

UNC School of Law students visited Boone and Burnsville over spring break to establish legal clinics with High Country Legal Aid to assist with FEMA appeals and insurance claims. Students assisted clients under the supervision of lawyers from the legal aid office.

Kirk Boone, a property tax expert at the UNC School of Government, worked with tax assessors in western North Carolina to complete damage assessments.

Improving risk management tools

The Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation is developing advanced tools and strategies that use cutting-edge analytical techniques to better understand the potential frequency and severity of events, the vulnerability of communities and the resulting financial impact. IRMII will create new and improved risk management tools to more effectively combat the adverse financial impacts of these intermittent and unpredictable events to support more resilient communities.

Saif Khairat, Beerstecher-Blackwell Distinguished Term Scholar and professor at the UNC School of Nursing, and his team at the Center for Virtual Care Value and Equity aggregated publicly available information to create a map to identify areas of need after Hurricane Helene. The center shared the tool with policymakers, health care leaders and providers to help them better understand how to provide care, as many of the communities already face access barriers.

Resources for local governments

The UNC School of Government built an Emergency Management microsite with resources for North Carolina emergency managers, including a list of faculty members with relevant expertise, emergency management law basics and Hurricane Helene response resources. Faculty from the school published blog posts providing local governments assistance with planning and permitting during disaster recovery, property damage assessments, water/wastewater issues, FEMA grant applications and more. Along with weekly office hours to advise on disaster recovery financing opportunities, the school has hosted trainings with FEMA’s Procurement Disaster Assistant Team for government representatives and nonprofit organizations supporting response and recovery efforts.

Mills River town manager and UNC School of Government alumnus Matt McKirahan’09, ’18 (MPA) set up a resource hub to supply food and water to community members, working with emergency responders to identify impacts on the community and needs of its students.

Consulting and assistance to businesses, local government and organizations

NCGrowth is supporting long-term economic recovery and resiliency in impacted communities by providing consulting and technical assistance to businesses, local governments and other community organizations. The team is leveraging their network to support needs in the region as they arise. NCGrowth Program Manager Stacy J. Guffey, based in Macon County, has been active in leading response and recovery efforts. Those include receiving and distributing supplies, search and rescue efforts, and resiliency planning and consulting on small business and economic recovery.

Assistance to UNC Asheville

More than 500 UNC Asheville courses were converted to an online format with help from volunteers across the state, including ITS Educational Technology‘s Thao Nghi Tu, Morgon Haskell and Kate Moss.

Assisting WNC elementary schools and displaced students

The Institute for the Environment‘s Center for Public Engagement with Science educators, alongside collaborators in North Carolina State Parks, provided a day of hands-on science programming for students in a western North Carolina elementary school displaced by flooding. Programming included multiple science stations, and the team replaced some of the science instructional materials and reference books that were lost in the storm. Additional outdoor educational programming took place throughout the school year.

The Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, along with N.C. Science Festival community partners, created activity and play kits for impacted residents. Play kits were delivered to Hands On! Children’s Museum in Hendersonville, which served as a regional community hub and supply distributor for families across the region.

The UNC School of Social Work Family Support Program released several social emotional resources, including a social story for children in English and Spanish. They also created sensory bags to deliver to Asheville and Boone affiliates to support children with disabilities who may have increased anxiety because of the hurricane.

Digitizing archives

The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center at University Libraries has worked with mountain communities to quickly digitize materials from communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. Five newspaper titles are being digitized, including five volumes of the Avery Herald that are held nowhere else.

Debris cleanup

Five Rural Medicine Pathway Program scholars traveled to Old Fort to help clear debris from a single-family home ravaged by Helene. The Rural Medicine Pathway Program is a collaboration between the Carolina Covenant and the UNC School of Medicine that supports Covenant scholars pursuing health careers in rural areas.

Maribel Borger and other members of the Rural Medicine Pathway Program combined for nearly 30 hours of volunteer work in Old Fort, North Carolina, clearing debris from a single-family home that had been ravaged by Helene. (Courtesy of Borger)

11 APPLES Service-Learning students traveled to Marshall over spring break to clean up flooding debris. Offered through Carolina’s Center for Public Service, the APPLES Service-Learning Alternative Spring Break is designed to connect academic learning and public service.

Emergency housing

The UNC School of Social Work Family and Children’s Resource Program worked with the Foster Family Alliance of NC to find emergency housing for approximately 70 foster families displaced by the hurricane. The school also conducted a supply drive for foster families and coordinated with FFA-NC to deliver supplies and care notes the week of Oct. 21.

Continued care

UNC School of Nursing faculty and students traveled to western North Carolina over spring break to set up free clinics at churches and community centers, conduct health workshops at a women’s shelter and conduct screenings at a pediatric psychiatry clinic.

UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC continues to address North Carolina’s health care needs in the aftermath of Helene. Students training to work in medical, dentistry, pharmacy and global public health fields, along with faculty and staff, have helped to set up medical clinics, deliver food, remove fallen trees and more. Read more about UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC’s efforts.

The following UNC Health hospitals continue to serve the region:

• Appalachian Regional in Boone
• UNC Health Blue Ridge in Morganton
• UNC Health Caldwell in Lenoir
• UNC Health Pardee in Hendersonville
• UNC Health Sciences at MAHEC in Asheville

Resources

The Institute for the Environment‘s Center for Public Engagement with Science developed a web-based disaster recovery resource to share with impacted communities in western North Carolina. The website provides specific details on mold cleanup, accessing clean drinking water, protection from mosquitoes and other pests, cleanup around mud and other environmental health hazards.

Aid distribution

The Nutrition Research Institute has been actively supporting relief efforts by packing requested supplies for local organizations delivering aid to mountain communities in need. Many have also volunteered their own time to assist in on-the-ground cleanup and the sourcing of blankets, clothing and other essentials for those impacted by the storm. In November, a team from the institute spent the dat at Second Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem, packing food for distribution to affected areas.